re: Bama Football Tidings

Alabama's more methodical offense aims for less risk, greater rewards by Christopher Walsh

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Yards after the catch an area the Crimson Tide could see a big difference in 2019

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — It was off to the races.

Midway through the second quarter of Alabama’s season opener against Duke, when the Crimson Tide was establishing its dominance in the neutral-site game, Alabama had its biggest offensive play of the day.

It was a pass caught four yards behind the line of scrimmage. However, it turned into a 39-yard catch-and-dazzle gain.

It would have been topped by running back Najee Harris taking another short pass 54 yards, but was nullified by a penalty. Regardless, the only thing missing from the Crimson Tide’s ability to gain yards after the catch were starting blocks.

“We don’t keep track of it,” junior wide receiver Jerry Jeudy said. “I feel like that’s what we do is make plays when we get the ball in our hands. You’ll know who is going to score. When we get the ball, we just try to make something happen.”

The players may not keep track of yards after the catch, but we do at BamaCentral. By our count, the Crimson Tide had 264 against the Blue Devils.

Jeudy topped the list:

Unofficial yards after the catch vs. Duke
Jerry Jeudy 82
Jaylen Waddle 66
DeVonta Smith 48
Miller Forristall 17
Henry Ruggs III 16
Brian Robinson 14
Jerome Ford 14
Major Tennison 7
Total: 264

To put that into some perspective, the most Alabama had all last season was 267 against Texas A&M.

However, what really jumps out is when one compares those totals to the 2018 averages of Alabama’s top receivers.

Average unofficial yards after catch, 2018 season
Jerry Jeudy 33.2
Henry Ruggs III 20.6
Jaylen Waddle 23.9
Irv Smith Jr. 24.4
DeVonta Smith 20.6

Let your playmakers make plays has always been a key part of Nick Sabans’ offense, regardless of how it’s done, and getting the ball to them in space is a key component of any successful offense nowadays.

So you can be certain that Saban knows exactly how many yards after the catch the Crimson Tide has every game.

“I always tell the players to take what the defense gives, that we can make explosive plays catching a 2-yard pass and turning it into a 70-yard play, as we can always trying to force the ball down the field,” Saban said. “Especially with the kind of players that we have that have run-after-a-catch ability. I think it’s imperative to the success of what we’re doing.

“But we’re also doing the things that we do because those guys can do that. It kind of lends itself both ways. We do it because they can do it and because they can do it, it’s a tremendous weapon.”

Alabama, of course, set numerous offensive records last season, and quarterback Tua Tagovailoa set the NCAA single-season record for passer efficiency.

That he did so while continually throwing down field is a big reason why he’s being hailed a potential top pick in the NFL draft. But those kinds of throws obviously come at a greater risk, which caught up to him some in the College Football Playoff.

Alabama still ran run-pass options (RPOs) against Duke. What Tagovailoa also did was read the defense better, not force bad passes and, as Saban said, take what the defense gave him. A huge benefit to doing so was Alabama ended up with a huge advantage in time of possession, 36:37-23:23.

“Not really,” junior wide receiver DeVonta Smith said when asked if there were fewer RPOs. “It was about the same thing, it was just the pressure that was coming in that stopped some of it.”

Under new offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian, the real difference in the offense wasn’t with the plays necessarily, but when they were called. Sure there are new wrinkles, like four receiver sets. However, it’s not like Alabama didn’t have crossing routes and quick-release throws in the playbook before.

Also, Alabama also made an early adjustment, both to help out running back Jerome Ford, who had been thrust into the starting lineup, plus also counter Duke’s pass rush.

“That’s the whole thing with football, you have to make adjustments in games and that’s something we had to adjust to,” Smith said. “I mean, that wasn’t something that was planned, it just happened.”
Consequently, a huge problem for defenses is that even though Alabama may not be looking to go deep as much, it still can. All of last season proved that, and even at SEC Media Days Tagovailoa was still talking about taking shots downfield.

The threat will be enough.

Tagovailoa chucked only one ball down field against Duke, early in the game when he overthrew Jeudy. Otherwise, his longest throw downfield was just 23 yards, also an incompletion. It was when Duke was in man coverage, and he tried to do a pump fake and then hit sophomore wide receiver Jaylen Waddle on the right side.

Alabama probably won’t be seeing too much man coverage this year, mostly zone against its high-flying receivers.

Of Tagovailoa’s 31 attempts, 25 were 10 yards downfield or shorter. Of those, there was just one incompletion, the quick throw left in which Jeudy wasn’t expecting the pass.

Seven of his throws were to someone behind the line of scrimmage, by Waddle.

They resulted in 91 yards and a touchdown.

“I feel like we were more play-by-play,” Jeudy said. “You know, last year we were more like score fast, score fast, big play, score fast. This year, we’re like taking it slow play-by-play. I feel like that was just us the first half, but the second half we did a lot better on taking advantage of our plays."

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Alabama practice report: Notes on injured players By Matt Zenitz | mzenitz@al.com

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Alabama practiced Wednesday afternoon, working inside on a 95-degree day in Tuscaloosa.

Here are some notes from the media viewing period:

— Backup offensive guard Emil Ekiyor (knee) and backup defensive end Justin Eboigbe (foot) weren’t practicing. Alabama hopes to have both back in a week or two, according to coach Nick Saban. Ekiyor was walking around before practice with a brace on his left knee.

— I didn’t see freshman defensive end Antonio Alfano during the portion of the viewing period I was watching the defensive linemen.

— It looked like freshman defensive lineman Ishmael Sopsher was working with the scout team.

— Freshman safety Jordan Battle was shadowing Shyheim Carter at strong safety when Alabama was working in its dime defense. Battle and Daniel Wright were the second-team safeties in dime. Freshman DeMarcco Hellams was the second-team Money/dime back.

— Shane Lee was the linebacker in the dime defense.

— The first-team offensive line was the same it’s been with Alex Leatherwood at left tackle, Evan Neal at left guard, Chris Owens at center, Landon Dickerson at right guard and Jedrick Wills at right tackle.

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Matt Zenitz is an Alabama and Auburn reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @mzenitz.

Alabama safety Jordan Battle intercepts a pass vs. Duke. (Photo: Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire, Getty)
Nick Saban Sees Challenge For Alabama Secondary By Kirk McNair

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“Secondary” has several meanings, and the one involving football isn’t the one in the phrase “of secondary importance.” The football secondary – the defensive backfield – is the last line of defense. Indeed, in Alabama’s scheme it can be more than just “last line.”

The issue arises because this week Alabama is host to New Mexico State, a team that will be over-matched and likely to air it out against the Tide.

Alabama, ranked second in the nation, will take on New Mexico State, coming off a 58-7 loss to Washington State, – yeah, 58-7 – at 3 p.m. CDT Saturday in Bryant-Denny Stadium with SEC Network televising.

There was a reason for Bama to be concerned in last week’s season-opener against Duke in Atlanta, primarily because of the well-deserved reputation of Blue Devils Coach David Cutcliffe for his quarterback development and offensive schemes. As it turned out, it was not much to worry about. Alabama won the game, 42-3, and held Duke to 12-22 completions for only 97 yards and turned in two interceptions.

Saban said, “Every opponent that you play creates issues and problems that you have to work on to try to defend, whether you’re on offense or defense or special teams or whatever it is because it comes down to your ability to execute against those players. And we certainly have a lot of respect for New Mexico State, their team and their players and their coach.”

New Mexico State will be led by redshirt-sophomore Josh Adkins, who Alabama Coach Nick Saban called “a very capable guy.” Against Washington State he aired it out 42 times, completing 28 for 221 yards. He suffered two interceptions.

Saban said, “There’re going to be a lot of challenges, a lot of formations, a lot of adjustments. They have some really good concepts in the passing game.

“They utilize their skill players extremely well, so it’s going to be a challenge for us to cover, play the ball, tackle well in space because these kinds of teams…the ball’s going to be in space a lot on the perimeter.”

As Saban frequently reminds, playing pass defense is more than just the defensive backs.

He said Alabama’s front must “try to affect the quarterback” with the pass rush.

“It’s going to be a challenge for the entire team,” he said, “but especially for the secondary.

“I think last week, other than not playing the ball in the deep part of the field very well, we tackled well. We didn't miss a lot of tackles on defenses, period, and we played pretty well in space. We did a good job of containing the quarterback. We weren't worried about sacking that guy; we didn't want him taking off running because he made a lot of plays running when he played a year ago.

“I thought the defense did a pretty good job, and when [Duke] made plays it was because we made a couple of bad mental errors. It's good teaching (moment) for our guys to learn from and hopefully we'll be able to improve.

“But this is a completely different style of play than we saw a week ago.”

Saban’s discussion of secondary play led to a bit of a light moment when he was asked about the interception by freshman Jordan Battle in the final minute of Bama’s win over Duke in Atlanta.

With a bit of a chuckle, Saban said, “As fans, all you know is that he intercepted the ball.

“But as coach, we weren’t playing the right coverage.”

Still, Saban said, “I love Jordan Battle. He's a really good player. He's going to contribute to our team this year. He is one of the young players on our team that seems to be able to stay focused and improve and make plays every day.

“He's the kind of player that even though we didn't do the right thing on that side in the coverage, he finished the play, he played the play. He played the ball with confidence, which is an important part of being a good defensive back. We're excited about him being in the program, and we're excited about his performance.”

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Head's up (Surge) today is a long day at work. We are sponsoring a "Great Big Thank You" event where the employees in the entire building are invited to write thank you letters to be delivered to the deployed troops on Thanksgiving. (I am leading this effort and that means I will be at work until 10 tonight - our building houses a 24-7 operations groups) So my posts will be limited (non-existent) until I get home (10-11p)
Thanks everyone.. let's keep the posts and discussions "rolling" like the Tide

I apologize for the off topic question..

But has the LSU locker room gay rap battle been discussed on tRant yet?

I haven’t but the video I saw was from 4 days ago so I figured I’d ask.

This video is HIGHLY suspect

Alabama Crimson Tide football Score Prediction Show (Crimson Tide vs. New Mexico State)

Alabama Football
Started streaming 20 minutes ago
Kyle Henderson of BamaInsider.com recaps Alabama's 42-3 win over the Duke Blue Devils. Call into the show at 205-686-3604 live starting at NOW... should go for an hour or so

I’m hearing the Oline is shifting to this:

Leatherwood|Neal|Dickerson|Womack|Wills